Psychology Papers 1:​​Movement, Meditation, and the Human Condition

The loss of natural movement to the depressed person and the experience of recovery: Heidegger, dance & sport.

Quintin, J. (University of Sherbrooke)

​We will begin our communication with the idea that phenomenology is the examination of what is going on within our experience. A human being, according to the Czech phenomenologist Patocka, is characterized by mouvement. To live is to move. And Heidegger will say to move forward, projecting oneself in the future. But when illness hits a person, everything stops, gets immobilized. There is a breakdown. Nothing happens anymore. The person feels enclosed in the present. This is well described with depression. So there is a loss of vitality, of mouvement. SInce life is always linked to movement, and movement is always corporeal, we think that we could imagine a therapy with movement, sport and dance. But sport and dance can also diminish the feeling of being alive if it is done with the idea of extreme performance or with the idea of absolute technical control. Extreme performance kills the feeling of time, the rhythm of life. So, the person is not sensitive anymore to what is going on within herself. Our idea is that doing sport and dance must be done with attentiveness, with wachfulness, and maybe slowly. In this way, as told Patocka, mouvement is coming to the presence and is going out of the present moment. We will try to answer the question: what is happening when doing sport and dance? After considering the thought of Patocka, we will use the thought of Heidegger to give a practical side to phenomenology.

Meditation and relation: A qualitative look at how meditation and mindfulness influence intimate relationships

Laplante, J. (Clark University)

Meditation and mindfulness are associated with many positive outcomes, including reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression (Khoury, Lecomte, Fortin, Masse, Therien, Bouchard & Chapleau, 2013), increased well-being (Branstrom,​Duncan, & Moskowitz, 2011), and increases in self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Most relevant to the current paper, a small but growing body of literature suggests a link between mindfulness and positive relationship outcomes (Kozlowski, 2013); the current paper investigates this literature from a phenomenological perspective. While certain variables have been found to be correlated with meditation and positive intimate relationship outcomes, as of yet little research has investigated how these concepts and concerns are at play within the lived experiences of individuals in these relationships (see Pruitt & McCollum, 2010 for recent work in this area). As such, a phenomenology of meditators who are currently in romantic relationships is being conducted. Specifically, we are drawing participants from the meditation traditions of Zen, Vipassana, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Questions include the influence of meditation on life in general, and relationships in particular; the effect of meditation on experiences emotions and communication between partners, potential shadow sides or negative influences of meditation on the relationship, and others. Data collection is ongoing, but preliminary analysis show a holistic effect of meditation on all aspects of life, which can be applied to relationships in specific ways unique to the challenges of being in close relation with another. Implications for meditators, meditation communities, and relationships in general will be discussed.

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